olympus street
by piperreynas
Summary: in which all of our favorite characters live in the same apartment building. naturally drama ensues. rated t for language and potential mature themes later on. on a hiatus of indeterminate length.
1. these are my (least) favorite things

_**olympus street**_

Annabeth grips the book in her hand a little tighter, frowning at her watch. She knocks on the door again, a single short rap, and then glares at the gold lettering. 18A. Nothing. She's considering leaving the Webster's Dictionary with a note, because honestly she has much better uses of her time, when the door is suddenly yanked open with a whoosh. The man on the other side is black-haired, green eyes, but she kind of regrets knocking so loudly once she sees his sleep-disheveled hair, and the drool on his face.

(It's two o' clock. In the afternoon.)

Annabeth is startled out of her reverie by the neighbor speaking. 'What do you want?' he says, his voice still husky because of sleep. She jumps a little.

She covers it up with what she hopes is a bright smile. 'Hi! I'm Annabeth Chase, from 18B, from across the hall, which would make me your neighbor.' She pauses there still smiling, waiting for him to greet her properly. He just stares at her.

He raises an eyebrow. 'Is that it?'

Annabeth frowns. 'No.' she says, a little stiffly. 'I wanted to give you this dictionary, you know as a 'welcome to the building' present.' She thrusts the book into his hands, with another bright, albeit fake grin. She stops, and waits for her greeting. When he doesn't say anything, she opens her mouth but the neighbor beats her to it.

'Thanks…? Bye.' He abruptly slams the door in her face. She closes her mouth and stares at his door for a while. She swears she can hear Thalia sniggering in her ear. She turns on her heel glaring and stalks to her apartment, and slams the door. Her anger wears off after a while. (Not. Every time she forgets about him she sees the spot on the shelf where her dictionary was supposed to go, and she gets mad all over again. Idiot.)

Oo0oO

Percy's first thought when he sees the blonde knocking furiously at his door, is that maybe he should stay away, because she looks kind of insane pounding on his door like that. Wait no…that's his second thought. His first is that someone should tell her to stop, because he's so goddamn sleepy right now, it's not even funny. His third thought, is that maybe he should open the door- after all, she is kind of pretty (and she has also been standing there for ten minutes…)

So he yanks the door open in a haze. He realizes as soon as he opens his mouth, that maybe it would have been a better idea to just turn everything off and pretend he wasn't home or something. (God, he's so sleepy right now.)

He decides to forget it when she stalks off. (And if he watches her walk back to her apartment through the peephole in the door, it's only because he's confused.)

Oo0oO

She goes to Thalia's place as soon as her best friend gets back from…whatever seedy motel she was probably in. As soon as they are properly seated on the couch, and supplied with their drinks, Annabeth announces, 'The new neighbor is an asshole.'

Thalia blinks. 'Oh.'

'Yeah.'

'What?'

'The guy in 18A is a moron!'

Thalia blinks again. 'I'm sorry?…What happened?'

Annabeth scowls. 'I gave him a dictionary, and he slammed the door in my face. I was knocking on his goddamn door for ten minutes, and he wouldn't open it! And he was sleeping at like two in the afternoon.' She fumes.

'And he was hot right?' Thalia asks, smugly

'What? No!' She cries indignantly. (She's lying.)

Thalia can tell, of course. (She's always been way too good at this. Maybe she is psychic?) 'He was, wasn't he? I can tell, sweetie. You've got your pissed-off face on.'

'So?'

'You get that face whenever someone is so hot, it makes you mad.'

'I do not!'

'You had it on after you met Luke.'

'I was pissed off because he had spilled soy latte all over me! He was not cute!'

'Uh-huh.'

Annabeth rolls her eyes. 'The neighbor was not in any way, shape, or form hot.' Annabeth declares. (But he was a little bit cute, Annabeth thinks as she scowls into her wine.)

'Okay. Sure.' Thalia says. She sips her orange soda, raising her eyebrow.

Annabeth sighs. 'He may or may not have been hotter than the guy in 12C.'

'No!' Thalia gasps

'I said may or may not.'

'Which means yes, right?' Thalia asks smugly.

Annabeth gives her an eye roll, and a glare veiled by a sardonic look.

Thalia takes the hint 'Anyway. What was his name?'

Annabeth blinks. She thinks back to the interaction. 'I don't know. He slammed the door before I could ask.'

'You're serious? Jeez, Annabeth.' Thalia throws her arms into the air like she's asking God why Annabeth is so incompetent with guys. Annabeth imagines punching her several times, as Thalia gives her shit about being too distracted by a supposedly hot, sleepy guy to get his name for the rest of their NCIS marathon.

Oo0oO

Annabeth finds out his name the next day. She goes down to check her mail, and finds her mailbox is half full of her neighbor's mail. It's addressed to a Mr. P. Jackson. (She definitely didn't scowl at the prospect of seeing him again. That would not be nice.)

She knocks on the door. This time he opens up immediately. 'Hi!' he greets her with a bright grin. He blinks at her owlishly. 'Annabeth right? Sorry about yesterday. Moving and all that crap.' He says animatedly, cupping the back of his neck. She scowls in her head.

Annabeth smiles despite her anger. 'It's okay. I get it.' ('If he doesn't catch the sarcasm' she thinks, 'he's an idiot.')

(He doesn't catch it.) He rewards her with another grin (and yup, she's so done right now.) 'So…' he says, looking around. 'Do you want to come in or…?' he asks

'Oh. No, your mail was just in my box.' She hands it to him hurriedly watching detachedly as a few envelopes fall on to the ground, not even bothering to pick them up. (She so eager to leave she doesn't even care.)

He stoops to pick them up. 'Thanks.' he says when he gets back up. Wait for a minute? Thanks.' He almost trips several times as he walks two feet to duck back into his apartment (is that even possible?) and comes out a minute later with a bundle of letters. 'I guess these are yours then.'

She takes them and turns around. 'Thanks, again.' He calls.

'No problem, Mr. P. Jackson.' She calls over her shoulder.

'Percy.' He says.

She turns around. 'Percy?'

'The P is for Percy.' He gives her a wave, and a small smile before closing his door.

Oo0oO

'The neighbors name is Percy.' She says, after she's swallowed her bite of doughnut.

'And you like him.' Thalia adds on smugly.

'Where did you get that from?' she snorts taking a sip of her coffee. 'He's a complete idiot.'

'Well, you are hiding your face.'

Annabeth laughs now. 'Oh please. He's so mentally deficient, it's not funny. He can't even pick up on frickin' sarcasm.' She rolls her eyes.

Something much like amusement, and smugness flickers across Thalia's face. She swears on her dead mother that if Thalia actually knows Percy, and is playing matchmaker again, she will kill somebody.

'Do you know him?'

'He's my cousin.' She responds smirking

'Well then you of all people should know the depth of his idiocity.'

Thalia gives her a smug look. 'Maybe. But. Just you wait Annie. One day you'll look at him and think 'why…isn't that just the finest specimen of the opposite gender,' just like every other girl since he turned fourteen. And then Nico or Grover or I am going to find you two making out in the hallways.'

She takes another sip of her coffee. 'Sure' she says over Thalia's obnoxious smooching noises. She tries to quiet her with a glare. (Not working.)

Oo0oO

Eventually, Thalia stops of her own volition (a week later, but that's not the point.) She also suggests Annabeth invite him to a welcoming party. Annabeth chokes on her granola bar. 'What?'

'Well you are his neighbor.' Thalia says.

Annabeth narrows her eyes suspiciously at her from across the table. 'I loathe him. You on the other hand are the cousin he's known since you two were five. It would make much more sense to invite him yourself.' She gets her keys off the table.

'But he knows you too. And I don't want him to know I'm here in the building.'

'No.' She grabs her keys. 'Goodbye.' she says shortly.

'Remember those pictures?' She sing-song.

She turns around, stopping suddenly. 'I hate you.'

Thalia smirks at her. 'I'm giving you two weeks. Or I'm kicking down his door and doing it myself and the pictures go up.'

Annabeth levels a glare at her. 'Fine. Two weeks.' (She is so dead.)

Oo0oO

Annabeth finds that their mail has magically switched mailboxes every day for the next week. It's infuriating how many times she's had to talk to him. She immediately suspects Thalia, when Thalia tries to hide a laugh as she's telling her about it. (But, in hindsight, she manages to switch out Thalia's mail with 12C. She's mortified when the guy in 12C catches her in the middle of a marathon of Once Upon A Time.)

(It's been going for 16 hours already.)

On the other hand, it gives her several opportunities to ask Percy to the party to get all this over with. She squanders all of them, instead opting to get out of there as quickly as possible. She can't be in a space with that moron for more than five minutes without wanting to punch something, because honestly Percy Jackson is the single happiest person in the world.

(And if Annabeth glares at his back as she watches him walk back to his apartment, it's only because she's trying to be a considerate neighbor.)

Oo0oO

notes- I am doing a major edit overhaul thing on this one because to be honest, the writing and the characterization suck...so bear with me? Thanks.


	2. right into the danger zone

Grover doesn't really know what to think about the new guy. He's nice enough, he supposes, and otherwise normal, if a little oblivious and clumsy, but he is not at all uniform, or normal, the most prominent detail about his life being that he procrastinates so much he has to work all night and sleep all day. (Maybe Grover wishes he could to that too, minus the working part.)

Plus, there's the fact that he has also managed to somehow set his sights on Annabeth Chase, the girl who had vowed and he quotes 'on the dead body of her dear mother' at the tender age of sixteen to never let herself get 'tied down' by the opposite gender, without getting his limbs ripped off his body.

(He only knows that Annabeth hates him because Thalia and Nico had roped him into stalking Annabeth as she went to pick up her mail and Grover swears on his grandmother's prune juice that Annabeth snarled at him. But honestly, Thalia and Nico are as thick as thieves anyway, and this is not going to end well. But where he gets his probable cause for investigation isn't the point.)

Sometimes Grover kind of hates them, because they've given him a sort of paranoia (and subconscious respect,) concerning his privacy, but when it comes to Annabeth's love life, he knows this is something he's not going to want to miss.

So when Thalia asks him to go run a background on Percy Jackson, he says 'Hell, yes,' because there is no fucking way he is passing this up (even if he misses 'Shark Week' on Animal Planet. He also might have recorded 'Too Cute!' in advance as well.)

Oo0oO

Annabeth kind of hates her best friends sometimes. Especially when they start staking out people in front of her because honestly if they ever get arrested she wants plausible deniability for all of it. She's not getting a criminal record because of one of their stupid vendettas.

Some part (actually, it's more like every part) of her brain knows when Grover shows up uninvited to the mail room that Thalia and Nico are behind this. Especially considering, that she had seen Grover going down the stairs two minutes ago. So sue her, but she's a little wary when he comes to talk to her.

(And maybe the 'back-off' vibe she's had been emitting turned into a 'I-will-kill-you' vibe somewhere along the conversation, but at least it kept her away from Percy a while longer. She can't talk to him without imploding. Where did her legendary abilities to compartmentalize go?)

The conversation goes something like this:

'Hey Annabeth.' Grover chirps, suspicious as all get out. Honestly he's not fooling anyone. But then again when has he ever? Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Grover scoping them out, watching their every move.

She snorts and rolls her eyes. She quickly exchanges her mail with Percy (really Thalia?) and then hightails it out of there. She's got some documentaries to watch.

Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Grover's momentarily dejected expression turn into a smirk as he turns to Percy. She winces a little. (She may hate him but she would wish getting psychoanalyzed on anyone. By Grover of all people too.)

All in all, Annabeth calls it a success. Of course, knowing Thalia, Nico, and Grover, the entire building knows about the altercation by now. (And she's pretty sure the entire building knows that she hates him too.

(She's not sure if that's good or bad.)

Oo0oO

Grover a little dissapointed to be honest. He was hoping to get a read on Annabeth for once. But she remained as blank as ever, and then bolted out before he could get a read on Percy's reaction to her.

At least he knows Percy isn't gonna hurt her, but he suspects Thalia k ew that already. Something is definetly going on with her.

(And really come on. Percy and Annabeth are a thing waiting to happen. If only Annabeth would let it.)

He cackles. He has just the idea.

Oo0oO

Thalia almost falls off the couch laughing, when Grover explains the encounter in the mail room. (Even though she is a little dissapointed too.)

She laughs even harder (and actually does, ah, slip off the couch a little) when Annabeth stalks into 18D long after Nico and Grover are gone.

'Hey, Annie.' She grins, cheekily. 'What's wrong?' she asks. (And yep, she is in no way sorry for what she did. In fact, she's sort of happy about it.)

Annabeth glares at her. (Maybe, Thalia flinches.) 'You know exactly what's wrong.' She ays, angrily waving her arms in the air. 'What the hell was that?'

Thalia gives her an innocent look, her eyes wide as the Styrofoam plates she's currently eating out of (because she may be about to burn down the world, but she's still only 25.) 'What was what?' And maybe she's enjoying Annabeth's newfound indignance a little too much. But hey, she hasn't seen Annabeth like this in a long long time.

'Don't give me that, Grace. You know exactly what I'm talking about,' Annabeth growls.

'What?' she asks.

'The interrogation. I don't like him.' she exclaims furstratedly.

'Yet. You don't like him yet.' She cuts off Annabeth's remark with one of her own. 'Besides we weren't trying to see if you liked him…more like the other way around. We've gotten information that suggests he likes you.' she says gauging Annabeth's reaction.

She bites back a grin as a snarl spreads across Annabeth's face, and then gets up to go after Annabeth as she hurtles back into her apartment, before she does something rash.

(She's having way too much fun.)

(She doesn't give a damn.)

Oo0oO

Nico isn't usually the person who plays matchmaker- that is his cousin's job. But he's pretty sure he can make an exception for Annabeth and Percy.

They've been dancing around each other for about one and a half weeks now, and it's driving everyone on their floor nuts, because how in the world can you be that oblivious. Especially, because they're perfect for each other. He would know, after all, Percy is his cousin.

One day, they go to the local coffee shop, Beanz (what) because they're all too good for Starbucks (what are the odds, right?) Percy, Annabeth and Nico are waiting to get they're coffee and various baked goods- wait a minute, scratch that. Percy and Annabeth are waiting for their orders, and Nico is checking out the cute blond-haired barista with the bright smile…W something.

Nico is snapped out of his staring by a call of 'two lattes, and a black coffee, with a…blue chocolate-chip cookie?' And they're all drinking they're hopping up on caffeine and eating they're cookies, and in Nico's case, checking out the barista, when Nico notices something strange.

Nico, because of some deficiency or the other, and bad luck, when it came to the genetic lottery at least was shorter than most people his age. It was only by chance (or barista) that he noticed Percy turning his head every few minutes out of the corner of his eye. So naturally, he looks at them to get a closer look, and almost jumps out of his chair singing the X-Files theme, because there is no way that this is happening to him right now.

Percy is making eyes at Annabeth over his head. What is happening?

He waits till they go home before he confronts Annabeth though. He watches as Annabeth gets this cold calculating look as she watches Percy walk back to his apartment and nearly gulps under the force of a gaze that isn't even directed at him (what Annabeth is scary okay) before pulling her into a corner.

'So.' He says, and dammit, this in Thalia's job, what the hell was he thinking getting into this hormonal shit.

'So.' Annabeth gives him a strange look.

He takes a tiny breath, before giving her a sly little grin to throw her off. It works.

Annabeth narrows her eyes at him. 'What?' she says sharply.

And oh yeah, he's totally grinning now. 'What's this between you and Jackson?'

She gives him a sharp glare (and okay this is definetly Thalia's job he is done as long as it means he won't be on the receiving end of that glare anymore.) 'Nothing.' She bites out.

(He doesn't even care if she's lying anymore because he swears the room just got ten degrees colder.)

Nico opens his mouth then closes it again. 'Okay. I get it.' he gulps.

'Good.' she says sharply, the turns on her heel and stalks down the hallway to the one person elevator. (Thank God.)

(Boy has Percy got his work cut out for him.)

Oo0oO

notes- still overhauling. I'll get a new chapter asap.


	3. its friday (im in love)

_**chapter three**_

Annabeth really needs to ask Percy to come to that party. And at the same time she can't, because of the small problem- she detests him.

(Who decided humans needed to have feelings.)

(Thalia is going to have a field day with her. Hell, the whole building is going to have a goddamn party. Really, if they're all going to force her into interacting with Percy something is gonna have to give- it sure as hell ain't gonna be her sanity.)

She really doesn't understand why she isn't being buried with ribbing and teasing from Thalia, and Grover, and Nico, and Piper, and Jason, and Leo, and the owner, and Katie Gardiner from two floors up, (and holy shit, how do this many people know already?)

After all, it has now been three weeks since Thalia bullied her into asking. She thinks for a while, and _holy shit_ , is that camera _watching her_ walk with (run away from is more like it actually) Percy? She glares at it. It zooms to its previous angle immediately. She narrows her eyes. _Nico_.

Oo0oO

Nico pretty much knows he's screwed as soon as Annabeth freezes in the middle of the hallway, but, he tells himself, then again, it's totally Lou Ellen's fault for freezing behind the cameras ( _dammit why didn't you fucking move back and get the hell out of there why are you so incompetent_ ) And Nico calls it even considering the lovebirds currently strolling down the hallway were using him to make eyes at each other a few days ago.

' _Yeah._ ' He tells himself. ' _I'm just getting payback._ ' ( _Holy shit_ Annabeth is going to put him _sixty_ feet under.) And then he hears footsteps and it's all over as the door to the camera room flies open, and Lou Ellen runs out so fast she looks all blurry, and Nico falls out of his chair and traps himself behind a few boxes of cameras equipped with anti-hacking software. (How ironic is that, right? Maybe they do work-)

'NICO DI ANGELO!' (and,…. FUCK.)

Oo0oO

Lou Ellen really hates how Thalia and Nico have so much blackmail material on her, that they can literally make her do whatever they want. She's literally their own personal hacker marionette doll. You would think that a girl who could hack into the CIA facial recognition programs and the White House security system could find a little dirt on two imbecilic government drones who live two floors above her, but _no,_ the goddamn Universe decided that Lou Ellen was the one who needed to run from the entirety of the cybercrime division of the FBI _._

Oo0oO

At the end, Nico is given a stern scolding and a couple love taps. (Only they're not taps.)

(He walks home with two black eyes and a punch to the gut that's definitely going to bruise. Lesson learned indeed.)

Oo0oO

Thalia is sort of proud of Annabeth, when she sees Nico groaning on the way back to the apartment he and Grover share. And then she thinks of what her consequences are going to be.)

(Answer: not good.)

Oo0oO

Annabeth finally works up the self-control to ask Percy to go to the block party one day (an entire goddamn two days later, but still.)

They are switching mail (again) when she figures, better sooner than later. So she gulps, takes a deep breath and says, 'Youneedtocometothispartyinafewdays.' In one breath too. Then she turns around and tries to get the hell out.

Percy just blinks (but he doesn't look disgusted or weirded out or anything) like he's used to awkward blonde girls asking him to go to parties (and she's being honest here, even though she hates him - he probably is.)

'What?' he asks scratching at his head.

She grits her teeth internally (maybe a little externally.)

(Why couldn't you just let me leave?)

'My neighbor wants you to come to this party she's arranged.' she repeats slowly, enunciating every word.

He blinks again. 'Ah.' Then he frowns and narrows his eyes. 'Why couldn't she have asked me herself?' He looks so confused right now (don't punch him...)

She shakes herself out of this…thing she's spiraled into, and scowls. 'She thinks she's being cute, playing matchmaker.' she bites out.

He grins wryly. 'She reminds me of my cousin.'

She stifles a laugh because he has no idea. She gives him a fake smile. He clears his throat. She scuffs the ground with her toe. 'So, are you coming, or…'

'Oh…Um…Sure, I guess.' He says. They stare at each other for a while.

She shuffles. 'Bye.' she says, then turns on her heel practically runs back to her apartment.

Oo0oO

Grover is enjoying himself so much right now. But then again anyone would, if they were essentially living an especially awkward episode of Seinfeld. Seriously. He sometimes wishes this could go on forever. Then he sees Percy giving Annabeth this dopey look (sometimes over Nico's head) and he wishes feverently that this will end very very soon, because he is so very close to vomiting all over his new boots and ruining Animal Planet for himself in the process (and yes, that would be a very bad thing.)

Oo0oO

'Grover! Nico! Open the hell up!' Percy yells, because he's so disoriented right now, and Grover's is a shrink after all. Maybe he could help? And while he's waiting he takes a second to ponder the fact that he's head over heels for a girl he met two weeks ago.

Grover opens up blearily. 'No, I already told you I don't want a goddamn magazine you idiots-' he sees Percy at the door then, and gets this slow shrink-y grin, and maybe he shouldn't have come here at all- 'Percy! Come in!' Grover gets a hold of his collar and all but drags him inside. HELP.

Oo0oO

(When he leaves Percy's got this disgusted expression on his face as he runs back across the hall.)

(The other people on the floor can still hear him retching into the sink an hour later.)


End file.
